Stowaway

An airport ground staff member was jailed for three years for helping unauthorised passengers to board planes with forged documents in what a judge termed a deterrent sentence to underline the severity of the offence.

An airport ground staff member has been convicted and another acquitted after they were accused of helping seven stowaways - including a young mainlander disguised as an elderly Caucasian - to board planes with false documents.

A flight attendant yesterday told a court hearing charges against two airport ground employees how he became suspicious of what appeared to be 'a strange old man' with youthful looking hands who had boarded a flight to Canada in October.

SCENE OF THE CRIME: A TV screen showing images of the interior of a truck examined by a mobile X-ray system is displayed by Customs officers, who hope the multimillion-dollar equipment will enable them to outwit smugglers.

Updated at 6.53pm:
Twenty-four men found hiding in a US-bound container last month were sentenced to prison terms on Thursday, in the first case of its kind in which mainland stowaways were caught in Hong Kong and convicted.

Eight women illegal immigrants were arrested at High Island Reservoir, Sai Kung. It is understood the group had set off from Shenzhen in a fishing boat and had hidden near the east dam of the reservoir.